economy right now would you be willing to do that? would you accept that. he said i'm not interested in that. to pick up on al's point, that sort of puts the president in a kind of precarious position because if he's not going to negotiate and he won't accept what congress can pass, then aren't we heading to a default situation? i don't think we are. i think the president is laying out some rather tough negotiating territory or maybe nonnegotiating territory right now to see where republicans in congress are willing to do, and if they will budge a little bit. right now it seems like we are both testing whether each side intends to budge. we've been through that process many times in the obama presidency. looks like another round as well. >> is the president missing something here al that he could or should do on behalf of the common good? >> it's pretty hard on this one, charlie because he's right on the debt ceiling. major history absolutely dead on. but the debt sealing is a fraud. a total fraud. shouldn't exist. people from alan greenspan to tim geithner